Could Canmore’s doomed rabbits live to hop again?

Canmore rabbits: Could they live to hop again?

There is a scene in old black and white movies, movies where the bad guy who is really a good guy is on death row and facing the electric chair and waiting, praying, that the Governor will call granting him a last-minute reprieve.

The current plot in Canmore, Alta., is somewhat different, and decidedly more real — though no less dramatic. The man on death row isn’t a man at all, but a bunny rabbit. And not just one bunny rabbit but as many as 2,000 feral bunny rabbits that, for years, have been a scourge to local gardeners and a chronic civic headache in an idyllic mountain town where worrying about rabbits running amok is about the biggest worry most residents have.

Time had finally run out on Canmore’s rabbits, too, or so it seemed, after a recent injunction seeking to halt a proposed rabbit cull was tossed out of court and a trapper hired to execute the grisly deed of ridding Canmore of its bunnies, once and for all.

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But wait. Enter the would-be governor named Scotlund Haisley who, when you speak with him on the phone sounds like a sheriff from the Old West, or a former U.S. Marine. Mr. Haisley is a straight shooter from the U.S.A. and the president of Animal Rescue Corps, an elite crew of animal rescuers based in Washington, D.C.

A recent ARC operation involved abandoned sled dogs in Lac Simon, Que. Scores of animals were saved. The organization has shuttered puppy mills in Texas and Tennessee, and other spots, and intervened in hoarding situations where warm and fuzzy creatures are found living in cramped and nightmarish conditions.

In Canmore, the nightmare is rabbits gone wild, and a town that has had enough.

“In Canmore’s mind, they are moving forward with a catch and kill option and I am proposing something different — where catch and kill plays no role,” Mr. Haisley says.

“I am proposing only a 100% humane solution. I have no interest in being part of a catch and kill operation. I don’t think it is necessary. I think it is antiquated.”

ARC contacted the town of Canmore last week, and then filed an official Rescue the Rabbits plan on Monday. The plan, described as a “life-saving operation,” would entail partnering with the town to trap, spay/neuter and relocate the rabbits to a spot where they can live out their days in peace.

Mr. Haisley has American backers with deep pockets, but also relies on the largesse of the locals to finance his rescues, which, in Canmore’s case, might include providing a staging area for a team of 50 volunteers and discounting rates at a local hotel.

Wherever ARC goes, they travel with their own vet. Mr Haisley predicts Operation Canmore would take six weeks.

“We create the proposal, the outline of an operation and the community has to agree with it — and play a part in it,” Mr. Haisley says. “When we do our operations, we do them at as low cost as possible. In this case, I think it will be a combination of donations and town funds that have already been allocated for the operation.

“We are always looking at saving as much money as possible, and doing it as cheaply as possible and, typically, that is pretty easy for us to do, because we are extremely resourceful. And the community can play a huge role.”

The question is: does Canmore have the will to play any role, other than the bad guy, other than the: bunny killer? The bunny, it seems, is back in the mountain town’s court. Will the fur fly, or will Fluffy live to hop again, over the horizon, and happily ever after — just like in the old movies — thanks to an American white knight.